PeopleTools 8.55 Features: How to Deploy Homepages, Tiles and Branding

During the latter half of this year, we were given the opportunity to upgrade our PeopleSoft Interaction Hub to PeopleTools 8.55.05.

I would like to share what was learned from this process. This upgrade is the first time we took advantage of a number of things: from the Fluid Portal Registry to Branding and I would like to go into detail about each. It is important to note, PeopleSoft Interaction hub is on the same Operating System as other PeopleSoft Environments: a lot of functionality discussed here can be used with any Tools 8.55 system.

PeopleSoft Interaction Hub 8.55 Discussion Sections:

Setup and Integration Broker

Tiles and HomePages

Branding and Migration

8.55 Security

Recommendations and Backwards Compatibility

Comprehensive Testing

Section One - Setup and Integration Broker

Properly configuring integration broker is one of the most challenging aspects of deploying PeopleSoft Interaction Hub. I will you refer you to my how-to article here to get the basics of this setup with stock functionality and troubleshooting tips. This article goes on to configure unified navigation, and will show how combined homepages and tabs work. If you are following along ~ it would be a good place to start with a working sandbox system.

Section Two - Tiles and HomePages

With Tools 8.55 you are given a new canvas to design from. It is relatively easy to see how these are setup using the PeopleSoft Image 2 PUM demo data.

The two directories in the portal registry: (Nav Bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Portal > Structure and Content) that you will need to pay the most attention to lie in the Fluid Structure And Content directory:

The two directories you will be mostly working in during an 8.55 implementation for Interaction Hub

Fluid Homepages Directory

Corresponds to the Homepages a user has access to when they login. If you setup Integration Broker correctly, you will notice that all Homepages in each PeopleSoft Environment will merge together: for example, the Manager Self Service Homepage doesn't exist on Interaction Hub, but rather Human Resources, yet it will be accessible as a Homepage in IH.

If you are familiar with PeopleSoft Classic technology, Homepages most closely resemble Homepage Tabs ~ although they are not 100% the same. See the chart below explaining the differences:

Fluid Homepages

Homepage Tabs

Contain Fluid Tiles

Yes

No

Contain Pagelets

No

Yes

Able to split the ratio as 1-2
or 1-1-1

No

Yes

Able to show free text (html) content

Yes

Yes

Able to adjust accordingly to
screen size

Yes

Sort of

Able to show based on Users
permissions

Yes

Yes

Can be arranged in priority

Yes

Yes

User has ability to create
their own

Yes

No

Support for tile based
integration with other systems

Yes

No

Able to show different content
for different homepages

Yes

Yes

Fluid Pages Directory

This folder contains all Tiles found on the local Portal. Once these are created they can be linked to the Fluid Homepages. We will go into detail about the different options later in this section.

Understand How Homepages Combine Tiles Before Designing

In our previous Interaction Hub setup, a lot of the content we linked to resided locally on the Portal. We would create navigation collections in the Portal Registry, and assign roles based on dynamic security, then show them in homepage tabs.

In tools 8.55, if you setup Integration Broker correctly, you will notice that based on Home Page name (for example "Employee Self Service"), content will be pulled in and combined from other systems on the Interaction Hub. There is no need to worry about security, as it is all imported based on the remote security. This is a very neat feature, and when controlled properly can provide a great User Experience with little overhead.

Company News comes from Interaction Hub and the rest of the tiles come from HR. The system did this automatically.

The caveat all boils down to control: when we used to host all content only in Interaction Hub, we could fully control where each tile appeared. This new system allows more cooks in the kitchen, so to speak so it is important to have a central repository, as some Tiles may take screen priority over others. We used a google sheet (click here for a sample) and shared it among all BSAs and security staff. This way when we deliver a tile, we can filter the sheet and have a good idea of which tiles are available and where they should reside. Using this sheet also allows you to consider all fields that should be filled in when creating a tile.

Tiles as Links

The easiest type of tile would be a link to a classic or fluid component. Probably the most noticeable feature of any tile would be the icon you chose to represent the functionality. Fluid Tiles support SVG vector graphics: this means it doesn't matter which form factor you display the image on: an old iPhone or a 4K 32 inch monitor, it will be smooth on both devices. We found icons8.com to have a very good repository of SVG images that match the stock images oracle delivers with their existing tiles. You have to pay a one time fee, but we have found this to be worth the money.

SVG Images can also be added to a project in App Designer, and Migrated between tools environments, using Tools > Copy project to File in the source environment, and Tools > Copy Project from File in the destination environment.

EXAMPLE

Example Creating a Tile on Interaction Hub for the Student Center on Campus Solutions. This example will show how to create a tile linking to a classic component in PeopleSoft

1. We selected the Blackboard SVG icon from icons8.com: (the size that works best for us was 80x80 pixels) and uploaded it via: Nav Bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Branding Objects ~ Click the Image tab and and Upload Image Object. The Image was called CUST_BLACKBOARD

In this directory, we create a new folder
Name: CUST_ACADEMICS
Label: Academics
Sequence: where ever logical based on your organizational needs
Folder Security: Public

3. In the Academics Folder we create a new CREF:

Here are screen caps of each of the 3 tabs of the CREF:

General:

Note:

We used PeopleSoft generic URLs here ~ this was done so that we include this tile to display on Small Form Factor ~ if you choose PeopleSoft Component, you don't seem to have control of this. We found we had to convert a lot of our components to generic URLs else the tiles wouldn't appear on mobile devices ~ which really defeats the purpose of fluid adoption.

Security:

The CUST_ROLES we have here are being dynamically generated in the Campus Solutions source system then copied across using an asynchronous service operation. More details on how to do that can be found in this article.

Fluid Attributes:

These attributes are relatively straightforward. There are a number of things you can do with Dynamic Tile Content that I will discuss later in this article.

At this stage you can use a delivered Homepage, or create your own. We found that Employee Self Service, and Manager Self Service seem to be common delivered Homepages between PeopleSoft Systems. We find that Student Functionality doesn't fit well in the delivered home pages: we created a Custom Home Page:

The lower the sequence number, the higher priority your homepage will have: if it is first, it will appear first when logging in. Again it makes sense to keep all of these homepages and sequence numbers tracked in a single spot among all your streams: so you can determine which users will see what homepages.

You would need the same security added to this home page that all tiles within it have. And finally, in the Tile Content tab, add Check the Student Center tile you created and select how you want it to behave on the home screen ~ Req-Fix ~ prevents users from being able to remove the tile.

If you want to force a particular homepage to appear first, you also have the option of setting in in Assign Branding Themes: Nav Bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Assign Themes

Further Consideration ~ there is an easier way to do this!

Because of the way PeopleSoft 8.55 works, the Custom Home Home Page will combine Tiles from other systems. Our Campus Solutions system is on Tools 8.53, and this wasn't possible, but instead of the Dynamic Role solution, you could setup the tile locally on your 8.55 Campus Solutions system, and the Interaction Hub should pull the content and combine it, provided the Homepages have the same name.

Free Text Tiles

We used a lot of free text pagelets to push some more exciting content through our homepages ~ I found the can still be used in tiles and at the time of writing this article, 8.55.05 it is impossible to assign security to the free text tile iscript, so we got Free Text Pagelets working with tiles. Below is an example of creating a youtube video tile:

We are actually pretty excited about tiles: beyond iScripts, you can like to a number of different content types: PeopleSoft Generic URL is an option which opens the door to pretty much any type of content, provided it scales well! Providing analytic information in queries or pivot grids will be a great way to present data and statics aesthetically to your user base.

Other Useful Examples

Based on the two previous examples, other tiles we have had success with:

Edit Favorites ~ this functionality seems to be absent from the nav bar at the time of writing this post, logically we placed it under the Favorites Tile in the Nav Bar:
PeopleSoft Generic URL: c/PORTAL_COMPONENTS.EPPSC_EDIT_MYSC.GBL

*where CUST_NAVCOLL can be any nav collection (non-fluid components work best for now).

Tile Migration

It is absolutely possible to add tiles content to a project to Migrate: ensure you have your images and the Portal Registry Structures to a project:

Via App Designer:

Insert > Definitions into Project > Portal Registry Structures

Portal Name: Employe
Object Names:

PORTAL_LP_TAB
PORTAL_GROUPLETS

When migrating portal registry structures you always need to have import the root object. From here you can also ensure all the related definitions are selected (and any folders in between):

You can then save the rest of your Custom Folders and Crefs... I would strive to use a common naming convention here something like CUST_TILE, so that it will be easy to add these into a Project.

Migration between tools environments, using App Designer: Tools > Copy project to File in the source environment, and Tools > Copy Project from File in the destination environment will get these moved across. Phire is a great tool to do this in a controlled manner: just ensure you are using the latest version to get the fluid stuff moved across.

Beyond Caching: Tiles and Homepages

I like to say the Homepage preferences on Tools 8.55 in some cases, work like a baby duck. That is, the first thing a baby duck sees it will imprint and believe it is their mother (even incorrectly). In 8.55 when you first login, a few things will get saved, making it difficult to change later.

From our observations, these initially get created from the portal registry upon the first login, but some things tend to linger around. For example, we have found it difficult to re-name Homepages once somebody has already logged in. Also removing tiles from the home page in the portal registry may force them to linger around as optional tiles. One way to clear these out would be to delete / recreate the account. It has also been suggested that deleting information from these does the trick: I await for a function like "Clear Users's Preferences" that would do this cleanly. Until then, be careful about Homepage names: they can be tricky to change. Hiding and showing unwanted tiles can ultimately be controlled by security.

Section Three - Branding and Migration

Branding in Interaction Hub, Image 2 on Tools 8.55 also has some nice new features particularly with themes:

The new Theme Builder which looks exclusive to Interaction Hub in 8.55 employs a fluid activity guide to quickly create a branded theme. You can assign security, publish and even create a migration project from this Activity guide: it provides some very nice functionality here.

We learned that some of the fine tuning needs a second component: Theme Builder Advanced Setting ~ this will allow you to adjust branding on additional Portal navigation features, such as the background colour of the Nav Bar.

EXAMPLE

Example: Custom Fluid branding in PeopleSoft Interaction Hub 8.55:

You can upload an SVG directly in theme builder, but it is also possible to upload a file in the branding objects. Make sure the SVG you use has a readable height at around 28 pixels, as this will scale properly with your header.

We set the default theme to Yes and Added a Role under Assign Theme to Attributes.

Save and click next.

Click Publish and that should deploy your new theme.

... right under the publish button, you will see a 'Create Data Migration Project'... this will be useful if you wish to export this theme. You could do it at this stage, but I recommend you first browse to Theme Builder Advanced Setting as it gives you more granular control over things like the Nav Bar background color.

This is the final result:

Data Migration Workbench

It is no coincidence that Oracle has included a link to export your theme using Data Migration Workbench. You will find as you navigate between Interaction Hub and remote fluid components, such as Pay on PeopleSoft Human Resources, that component will no longer have any of the Branding you have set. This feels like a step backwards, as a key benefit to Interaction Hub in the classic world is that you only need to do branding in one place: Interaction Hub.

Thankfully you can copy themes created from Interaction Hub via Data Migration workbench to other environments relatively easily. The bonus here is we have found the theme gets automatically applied when you visit a remote fluid component via Interaction Hub: with no further configuration needed on the remote system: here is the use case:

-IH Admin creates CUST_THEME
-IH Admin exports CUST_THEME and imports it using Data Migration Workbench to HCM system
-When user logs directly into HCM system, theme setting remains as the default (dark blue)
-When user logs into IH, and via IH visits the Pay Fluid Component, the theme settings CUST_THEME exported into HCM will apply to the user's session as long as they are logged in.

EXAMPLE

Each environment is different, but I have written up a set of steps to migrate a theme from IH to HR using PUM images.

Export Theme

Navigate to your IH PUM VM Virtual Box Console

Login as root

Browse to: cd /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb/custhome/ (I had to create the last 2, using mkdir)

Again, the theme should be applied in your Target Remote system, but only should appear when you come through the Interaction Hub.

Section Four - 8.55 Security Changes

There are a lot of security Objects that get delivered with tools 8.55 ~ Oracle recommends that you clone all permission lists in these roles:

PAPP_USER

EOPP_USER

PeoopleSoft User

and apply to a General User role. From there you would work towards removing functionality not needed. We found when you need to remove functionality, very good place to start would be seeing the difference between the Guest Roles:

PAPP_GUEST

EOPP_GUEST

PeopleSoft Guest

Things like the Search Bar, removing items from the Action List, The Notification Flag all are controlled by security, and the guest roles don't have them.

Here are some of the particular security changes that helped remove certain functionality:

Section Five - Further Recommendations and Backwards Compatibility

In my previous post, I took the opportunity to get two Pum Images: Interaction Hub Image 2 and Human Capital Management Image 18 working with Unified Navigation on a laptop. Not everyone will be so fortunate to work in such a stock environment. As we upgraded our PeopleSoft Interaction Hub to Tool 8.55 we found out a few things.

Fluid Unified Navigation is only supported between 8.55 and 8.54 environments, and really you should only link 8.55 environments up.

In tools 8.55 the intention is to move away from the old way of navigating, and to create your own home pages. By default, the old Main Menu has been hidden, and the recommended only way to navigate is through the Nav Bar. This came as a surprise to us as Unified Navigation with our 8.53 systems didn't work. In order for Unified Nav to work in the new fluid mode, you must be on tools 8.54 or greater. We encountered a few issues with 8.54, so it would be ideal to have all streams in your environment at PeopleTools 8.55 for a unified experience.

Idealism is sometimes far from reality, as it is difficult to upgrade all systems at once. As part of our upgrade plan, have chosen to update our Interaction Hub and HR system to 8.55 first, followed by our Finance System, EPM then finally Campus Solutions. We have established some workarounds and tricks to allow us to take advantage of the new Fluid Features while bridging to the older systems as we upgrade throughout the year. Check the Tiles and Homepages Section below for an example on how to create a classic tile in a fluid environment: also check the Security section on how to granularly disable some of the fluid functionality (like add to homepage).

8.55 Isn't for Everyone

You will need to be careful to ensure all your users are using certified web browsers. For example this link here relays the fact that as of this blog posting, Chrome is only officially supported with Windows.

You will find that fluid pages aren't supported by older versions of IE, or users who use different flavours of the Linux OS: and these systems will be directed to the Classic Homepage Tabs. Ensure your classic pages still work if there is no way to get around this.

Performance and Caching

Pay attention to your caching settings in your web profile: (Nav Bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Web Profile > Web Profile Configuration). The stock configuration as seen in Interaction Hub Image 2 seems to perform well for us in a highly integrated environment. This was not the case for our Classic Homepage Pagelets ~ so we had to revert to the stock settings. Fixes in 8.55 allow the system to only render tiles that are requested on the homepage ~ this has large performance improvements over 8.54 where all the tiles were loaded at login.

With these settings enabled. some troubleshooting tips for users having issues (for example the Nav bar not refreshing) would be to hit Ctrl-Shit-Delete on their browser (firefox and chrome) and clear their cookies, and other cache settings.

Section 6 - Comprehensive Testing

With a tools 8.55 fluid roll out, we find that the system now has two personalities: Classic and Fluid. When designing and testing content in PeopleSoft Interaction hub, it isn't enough just to test one case before you can safely say something is working: a lot of new criteria need to be looked at.

The list below runs through some of the test cases to help troubleshoot specific issues or functionality.

20 comments:

Thank you for such a great post.I am having a problem when I change the logo on my custom theme/Header, the logo shows fine, but I notice it is switching my custom theme to the "DEFAULT_FLUID_HEADER". If I change back to my custom header, the Oracle logo is showing. Have you experienced this?

So via assemble themes, you are seeing the DEFAULT_FLUID_HEADER appear? Have you tried going through the theme builder and re-publishing your custom theme? Is that when it is switching? I think that would fix the logo.

If there are things that need changing, it may be easier to adjust the Theme Builder Advanced Setting settings.

Perhaps also copying the DEFAULT_FLUID_HEADER to your custom one will give you more Granularity (perhaps the header you are using is somehow overriding the logo?).

Simon,That is correct. When I use THEME BUILDER to change the log on my custom header/theme, It is assigning the DEFAULT_FLUID_HEADER to my custom THEME, and the custom logoseems to be attaching to the dealt header as well, If I go to assemble theme and change it back to my custom header, It shows the Oracle logo again. I will take another look at the advanced settings.Ti

~I think this one is a little trickier: I believe via this component: Nav Bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Portal > Branding > Assign Themes you can assign a theme via a role, then follow the steps in: https://leanitdesigns.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/staying-classsic-in-pt-8-55-for-now/ to put the main menu back in that particular theme. I don't think you can direct people to a classic home page versus a fluid one automatically: perhaps Admins can have a login page the deep links to a Home Page Tab... and everyone else goes through the regular way to get tiles.

Question - I was looking at your comments on testing and am unsure what you mean by "Does a Content Reference for what you are trying to access exists on the Interaction Hub, or on the remote system? (CREF found via Nav bar > Navigator > PeopleTools > Portal > Structure and Content)". We are having the issue where users cannot see all of the items they were expecting to see when using the Nav Bar. Did you have to assign security separately to all the CREFs in IHUB ? It does not appear to be using the security coming from HR or FS even when running Portal Sync. If they click through a tile they can get to the pages they need, they just cannot see it through the Nav Bar as the menu item is not available.

Hello, if you have two components, one saved in the portal registry, and another with the same node / menu and page saved in a remote registry (hr or fs), the local portal security would supersede the remote security if the component is accessed through the ihub.

What should be happening if unified nav is setup and working is all remote security should be inherited automatically and shown correctly through the ihub. So you have taken the root of a remote folder, added it to the nav baron the portal and only some items are coming through that folder?

I am not sure we have the unified nav setup and working correctly. What is happening is that the users see items in the NAVBAR in the remote system, i.e. HR , but are not seeing the same items in IHUB since security does not appear to have populated down to the CREF Level in Structure and Content.

hey @Wannabe: I've got some steps on Troubleshooting Unified nav at the bottom of this article: http://peoplesoftih.blogspot.ca/2016/04/deploying-unified-nav-on-two-855-pum.html ~ you are going to need to go over your unified nav config: Make sure SSO is setup / make sure both users have the PeopleSoft User role (to test) / Ensure the node URIs are correct / Toggle the In Network Settings / Ensure gateways and nodes are pinging.

We are upgrading our Finance to 9.2. With fluid turned on, when logging in we get an error Authorization Error - Contact your security administrator. We get around this when we put the PTPT1000 but we can't do this for all users. Is there a specific weblib that controls this?

hey @Heather, yeah the PTPT1000 PL is pretty broad: one thing we have done to try to narrow down what is needed is to do an "Inspect Element" on your (can be toggled by F12 in chrome) web browser. If you then navigate to the Network tab, to see which specific pieces are being loaded up here.

PTPT1400 used by the delivered GUEST account will also have a more limited amount of functionality: and could help.

Hi Simon,We want to to disable add tile button for certain homepages , any idea how to disable that so that user cannot personalize them. I was looking at peoplecode but seems like that page is using JAVASCRIPT so difficult to figure out what to change.

I don't think there is a delivered way to do this, per se: we have removed the ability for certain types of users to add tiles to any of their homepages (see some of the security functions above). The way it works, for example is that applicants cannot modify home pages, and they get their own home page: thus you can't customize it. This gets a little more complicated if you have multiple roles in the system, it could be possible to still add tiles to that homepage.

If you look into Fluid Dashboards, they are far less customizable than the homepages: you can even deep link to them ie have people log in directly to: https://piaurl/psc/ps/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/c/PT_FLDASHBOARD.PT_FLDASHBOARD.GBL?Page=PT_LANDINGPAGE&DB=CUST_DASH

It was very helpful and many thanks to you, I have a doubt and would be glad if you could clarify it. I have a fluid component in Navigation collection and published Nav coll as Tile. When I click the fluid component, It takes full screen hiding the left side navigation, how would one keep the left side navigation and see fluid content in right side content area. We don't use Interaction hub and the fluid component is simple delivered My preference fluid component which is not a 2-panel component. Have you come across such scenario?E-FLUID : Fluid Navigation Collection Fails For Fluid Pages (Doc ID 2315635.1) doc says the system is working as its expected.Would you throw some light on this please?

where CUST_NAVCOLL is your nav collection? If you take a look at the Time Tile in HCM it does something similar and it does appear to work with Fluid Components... Not sure what the change would need to be to get say My Preferences to work: but I would start with that Time tile in HCM.

Hi Simon, I have an issue with migrating my tile from one db to another.I have created a tile pointing to a Nav collection with the URL like this for eg: c/NUI_FRAMEWORK.PT_AGSTARTPAGE_NUI.GBL?CONTEXTIDPARAMS=TEMPLATE_ID:PTPPNAVCOL&scname=CUST_NAVCOLL

I have included the CREF of the Tile, CREF of Nav collections and its links into a project. When I copy this project to a target db, all CREFs are copied correctly except for the tile security settings. Note that I have created the tile manually without using the Tile wizard. I was told that we can use ADS dataset to migrate the tile created using the tile wizard. But in my case since I added the content reference manually I tried inserting the portal registry structure directly into a project and tried to copy. Any idea why the security settings alone didn't get copied? Can tiles be migrated without using ADS?

I read above the section on "Tile migration" which says to insert objs: Portal Name: Employe Object Names: PORTAL_LP_TAB PORTAL_GROUPLETSShould we also include the above 2 objects into the project along with the portal structure of the tile? so that tile definition (security) is copied fully. Please can you clarify this.

you can definitely migrate CREFs with app designer in a project... looks like you are trying to migrate a cref that points to a nav collection? That should work... one caveat when adding a content reference to a project for migration, you need to also add the parent folder it resides in to the project (the objects referenced above, I believe, are correct). As for security: did you ensure the roles assigned also exist on the system that you are migrating to? You can double check security assignment by just adding the Peoplesoft User role to the CREF then try migrating to see if it appears on the destination.

Hi Simon, your blog is very clear and helpful. Thank you very much.I need a help . Once i open the tile , i am able to see the tabs such as 'Add to Home Page' , 'Add to NavBar', 'Add To Favorites','Help', 'sign Out' in the landing page.

In this scenario, i would like to display the 'Help' and 'Sign Out' tabs alone for specific users and display all tabs for some other users.

Could you please tell me whether it can be done through code? if yes , could you please tell me where to change it ? I put trace but i am unable to figure out the exact place.

hey @joris: that would be done in app designer, I believe ~ Sasank has a writeup on how to change these: https://pe0ples0ft.blogspot.ca/2015/11/peopletools-854-branding-part-5c-fluid.html ~ unfortuneatley, you will find in fluid / classic components they behave differently.

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About Me

This blog for anyone who is looking to expand their PeopleSoft knowledge. I am interested in UX using PeopleSoft Interaction Hub: including Tiles / Homepages / Branding / and Integration. I have also had a lot of success with Virtual Box Images Running PUM Servers, and getting them to communicate among each other.

Anyone looking at some of the newer PeopleSoft functionality available and how it all works behind the scenes, this is your stop!